Category Archives: Giving My Best

You Have A Dream? Don’t Quit!Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th. I can tell you from experience this is true!

I remember playing baseball for two years at the ages of 14 and 15. My first year I had struck out every single time but one. A pitcher by the name of Dave Dalby was the pitcher that made the mistake of throwing a pitch which “inadvertently” hit my bat. Once the ball hit my bat I was as shocked as anyone! I raced towards first base as I watched my first, and only hit of the season drop into right field.

That year of frustration and futility was full of life lessons that has remained with me the rest of my life. Our Fans had booed my every trip to the plate. They knew I would strike out. And guess what? So did I. I had such a defeatist attitude. Probably much like the defeatist attitude that you carry with you.

Lessons Learned About Failing

·You can listen to your critics and quit, or, you can listen to your critics and use them as motivation to drive you towards the fulfillment of your dream. We all have critics and far to often we are all a critic. I believe most critics in my life are well-meaning and desire to help me. However, some will criticize without even getting the facts. Some time ago, I was sharing my ministry of evangelizing people on every Continent and then starting Churches from those evangelized. After two minutes my critic said, “You will fail.” Now this is a good man that loves God and has done a wonderful wok for God. However, I was faced with a choice. Do I retaliate and defend myself; feel sorry for myself; allow this statement to discourage me? Or, would I choose to listen in order to learn?

I Listen to my critics of today, by Asking the following Questions:

oGod, will you help me to have a teachable spirit, even if the critic has been harsh?

oWhat blind spot have I missed? We all have those areas where we are weak, yet we cannot see how these weaknesses are hindering us from achieving our dream So when a person criticize me, I immediately begin to seek what my blind spot might be.

oWhat can I learn that will help me further my Dream? What action step have I missed? What else do I need to learn?

·I learned that if I choose to listen to negativity without Evaluating the Experience, I would quit. I would be wasting the criticism that perhaps was needed to help me.

·You can focus on what you do not have, or, you can focus on all that you do have. I had talent; I was an athlete, I simply did not have the timing down on my swing. This skill could be learned with the great hand-eye coordination I had. I simply had to put in a lot of work while others were busy playing their “second” sport. That I did. I practiced day and night. My next door neighbor, Rick Estes would throw me a tennis ball at CLOSE range until I became so good that he made me learn how to bat with my left hand. The result, thanks to Rick was I went from a .011 batting average to batting .558 the very next season.

·I learned who my real friends were. It was my Dad, Robert Kilgore, who came to every game and watched his son strike out every time but once; who listened to all the other “Fans” booing his son each time I walked to the batter’s box. The next year the same “Fans” were cheering each time I walked to the plate.

·I learned to see Value in people BEFORE they succeed. I knew I had potential. I was a mufti-sport athlete. I had simply never played fast-pitch baseball before. I knew that if someone would help me, that I would be very good. Sound arrogant? No, I simply saw value in me that was hidden from everyone else. Therefore, I have in all my adult life been for the underdog. I have tried to support other people that had a dream, even when no one else would encourage them. I have a core belief that people are basically good all over the world, and that God has given talents and gifts to us all. Sometimes that .558 batter is just one friend away. I want to be a Rick Estes and be that friend that makes a difference in someone’s life.

·I learned that is more important to BE a friend that in HAVING a friend. This is what Rick taught me. He was only focused on helping his friend become a success in baseball. He displayed a very unselfish commitment to his friend. I made a silent commitment to try to “Add Value” to people the rest of my life. Guess what? There is GREAT JOY in being a Rick Estes, an encourager; an inspiration simply by believing in people.

·I learned that success does not come cheaply. There is a price to be paid to be successful. The question each must ask is, “Have I Counted the Cost and am I willing to Pay that Price?”

·It is so easy to overlook modest beginnings. We imagine highly-successful persons being blessed with almost superhuman talents. I am certain that any new players on the second team I played on thought that I was always a .558 hitter. In life, making this incorrect assumption might lead many to think that their big dream might be somewhat unreachable to the average people in life. As my Mentor, Dr. Maxwell said, “There are no secrets to success—only simple truths, principles, and disciplines that have been around for thousands of years.”

Principle to Ponder

Failure Happens; Success is a result of learning from our failings and making the necessary adjustments.

Failing need not be Final! Everyone fails from time to time! How will you Evaluate your failed Experiences to allow you to move forward in a positive and significant way?

We Expect the Best from Others, but do we Expect the Best from Ourselves

How often have we walked into a restaurant or department store only to leave disappointed because we did not receive the Brand Promise during our visit. We left thinking, “They did not give me their best.” Yet how often have we looked at our lives and come to the same conclusion, “I have not given my best to my Church, to my Work, or even to my Family.”

It appears that many people, including Christians, are happy with ‘being average’. We must understand how Average is the enemy of Greatness. Here is the basis of my belief. Average identifies you as the Best of the Worst, yet it also identifies you as the Worst of the Best!

No one pays a great salary to those who are merely average. No Pastor of a growing, thriving Church wants to hire staff that will be mediocre and average at best. They are praying and searching for those that daily will give the best they have to offer to bring onto their staff.

As the ministry God has led me to start, JimKilgoreMinistries, continues to develop, I am constantly searching to add men from all over the world to our International staff. We currently have a Regional Director for JKM in Central America, Pastor Timothy Aguire from Mexico. We also have a Regional Director for Asia, Pastor Jonathan Aparre from the Philippines. We have also assembled a team in Asia called, JKM Team Asia. Six godly men were selected because of their love for Jesus Christ and their passionate desire to win souls and start new Churches on every Continent.

If I had suspected they would only commit to an average effort for JKM, they would not have been selected. God’s work, especially on the International level, demands commitment to excellence and a dedication and urgency in reaching the World with the Gospel.

A friend asked me a fascinating question several years ago, “Jim, if you were in charge of quality control of a factory, what percent of errors would you tolerate?” “None,” I responded. “I’d be unhappy with anything less than 100 percent quality.”

He told me that he’d asked that same question to several people and their responses varied from 95 % to 99.9%. To the person who would tolerate quality errors of one-tenth of one percent, he showed a list with the heading: If 99.9 % is Good enough, then:

Twelve newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.

114,500 mismatched pairs of shoes will be shipped this year.

18,322 pieces of mail will be mishandled in the next hour.

2.5 million books will be shipped with the wrong covers.

315 entries in Webster’s dictionary will be misspelled.

800,000 credit cards in circulation will have incorrect card holder information on their magnetic strips.

2 million documents will be lost by the IRS this year.

20,000 incorrect drug prescriptions will be written this year.

291 pace maker operations will be performed incorrectly.

Do Your Best

You can’t be perfect
You can’t always be the greatest
What commands the most respect
Is your effort to do your best

When the curtain is finally down And the music has finally stopped
There is nothing more satisfying to self
Than to say, ‘I did my best’

It’s healing to say the least
And empowering to hear people say
‘All the labor of your hands
Will never be in vain’

In those words you’ll find perfection
They mirror all your effort
If ever in need of courage
Pick this poem and read again

You might not be the greatest
Or the best that ever lived
Provided you do your best
You’ll be, one of the greatest of all time

David Beckham

Points to Ponder on our Personal Effort

Can we accept less than 100 percent?

To improve upon “average” I have some great advice:SMALL changes over time will make BIG difference! Improvement is achieved in INCHES rather than in MILES!

Advancement only comes with continually doing more than is expected from you.

“The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.” Jackson Brown

You are doing your best only when you are continually trying to improve what you are doing.

Successful people were not born that way. They became successful by daily doing those things which the unsuccessful person refuses to do.

Someone once said, “If I continue to do what I have been doing, then I will continue to get the same results.” The question is, do you really want the same results you have been achieving?